On September 18, at noon, while special meeting of executive committee of Georgian Judo Federation was being held, no one knew where president of federation was.
Dilar Khabuliani did not attend the meeting held in his cabinet for unknown reasons. What the reason should be that head of the federation did not attend the discussion of the most important event of Georgian sport?! After the start of the closed meeting, representatives of media who gathered at the building of Judo Federation, were discussing how head of the federation could have entered the building that they could not notice it. But it is a fact that no one saw Khabuliani yesterday.
Many people attended meeting of Judo Federation's executive committee. There were Lado Vardzelashvili, minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, Giorgi Asanidze, chairman of Sport Committee of Parliament, Gia Natsvlishvili, president of Georgian National Olympic Committee, vice-president Davit Gobejishvili and other officials. 13 from 15 members of executive committee, came on time. We have already written about Khabuliani and the last 15th member, Temur Khubuluri, vice-president of the federation, is in Bulgaria where European Youth Judo Championship is held.
The first statements were made before the start of the meeting. Amiran Totikashvili, head coach of Judo national team, told journalists about his resignation. Totikashvili looked quite nervous. He blamed Gia Natsvlishvili, president of Georgian National Olympic Committee, for everything: "Before World Championship, Natsvlishvili told team doctor Zura Kakhabrishvili that in spite of any result, I would have to resign. Also there were some rumors that match of Tsirekidze was sold and I told him that it was useless to wrestle because everything had been decided. I want to state that Natsvlishvili is author of this performance", - stated Totikashvili.
Gia Natsvlishvili called a brave step of Totikashvili's resignation. After hearing his accusations, he was surprised: "Do not you think that it is absurd when president of Olympic committee is talking to head coach of judo team with the help of team doctor?! I cannot say why Totikashvili is blaming me for it", - stated Natsvlishvili.
Appearance of Davit Khakhaleishvili caused a great interest. One of the most titled sportsmen of our country had the same incident at Atlanta Olympic Games. He could not participate in the championship because of being late for weighting (by the way, Dilar Khabuliani was president of Judo Federation). Khakhaleishvili who came to attend the meeting refused to make any comment and entered the building without saying even a word.
Davit Berdzenishvili, head of Judo Federation, did not refuse to make a comment. Several months ago, he was the first vice-president of Judo Federation and was considered as a right hand of Khabuliani. Some coaches blamed him for misunderstandings in Georgian judo. It took a lot of time, energy and nerves to fire him. Dismissal of Berdzenishvili did no good to Georgian judo.
According to Berdzenishvili, people must not blame only Totikashvili for this incident. "We must not blame only Amiran. Maybe, you all remember the incident of Atlanta Olympic Games 1996 when Davit Khakhaleishvili was late for weighting. Everyone blamed Berdia Gugava, head coach of the team, for it. I think, it is the same situation and everyone blames Amiran Totikashvili. We must not blame only one person when there were so many people in delegation. When Totikashvili was attending the wrestling of Gujejiani where the others were that they could not have warned Tsirekidze?! Totikashvili is one of the best coaches of our country, if not the best one. Ask sportsmen about this and you will see what they will answer", - stated Berdzenishvili.
Shota Khabareli, former head coach of judo team, who was fired after great scandals in autumn 2009, stated that he would apply to executive committee about dismissal of Dilar Khabuliani.
Meeting of executive committee was closed and it lasted two hours. Everyone expected dismissal of Dilar Khabuliani. This statement should have been made by minister of Sport. But Lado Vardzelashvili did not state anything about it.
"At executive committee I stated my and the whole ministry's position that everyone is responsible for this incident - coaches and officials of the federation. Head coach of the team resigned and executive committee satisfied his statement. So, only coaching staff is dismissed. Soon we will represent a new coach and we will try to solve this problem because we have to participate in many important tournaments and the team needs an appropriate preparation. As for the issue about president of Judo Federation, I will meet Dilar Khabuliani on Monday and he will state about his decision. I do not want to talk about this now and especially, instead of Khabuliani", - stated the minister.
According to president of Olympic Committee, the chaos should be finished and the situation should be settled in Georgian judo.
Gia Natsvlishvili: "We did not talk only about the incident in Tokyo but also about the team result - 15 sportsmen and no medals! Everyone mentioned that the situation is quite difficult. We planned how to change this situation, improve the atmosphere to achieve success. As for a new coach, executive committee will decide it, though, also we will give them our recommendations. Now I can say that we did not talk about foreigner coach. Maybe, we will think about foreigner assistant but not the coach. Candidature of Soso Liparteliani, head coach of youth team, is being considered. But now he is in Bulgaria at European Championship and he has quite good results with his players.
I do not know why president of the federation did not attend the meeting today and it would be better if you ask him about it".
Shota Khabareli: "I welcome the step of Totikashvili. But now we are worrying about how the federation will work. Some steps were made to improve the situation but the most important is whether president of the federation resigns. I hope, everything will be found out on Monday".
Giorgi Asanidze made a short comment. Head of Parliament Sport Committee and Olympic champion stated that he hoped they would learn from their mistakes. "If the situation is not settled soon, this chaos will affect on the future results and we should not forget that only 2 years are left before Olympic Games. We all should play with the same rules", - stated Asanidze.
After the meeting Amiran Totikashvili looked more calm. His tone was changed. Former head coach of the team talked about the unity and the future of Georgian judo. "Only I should have taken responsibility and I did it to maintain the unity in the team and federation. If they think that I can still do something for Georgian judo, I will do it with great pleasure. I hope, everything will settle soon. I am not angry with anyone. We must do everything for judo. I did what I had to do. Officials of the federation know what to do".
We remind you, that Guram Modebadze, Solomon Peikrishvili, Iveri Jikurauli, Ramaz Chochishvili and Soso Liparteliani were working in the coaching staff with Amiran Totikashvili. But if we take into consideration that candidature of Liparteliani is discussed for a position of a new coach, we can think that he has not been dismissed and continues working.
The next meeting of executive committee of Judo Federation will be held after several days and maybe, a new head coach will be named there.
In short, "judo week" will be continued and supposedly, Dilar Khabuliani will "open" it on Monday. Perhaps, on Monday, we will know if era of Khabuliani finishes in Georgian judo. Or what will start after this, or... or... or... In short, we will have a hard day on Monday. Let us wait.

Eka Eloshvili
Photo by authoress